“Sounds of bullets… you cannot hear nothing…” – Talal Abu Rahma Interviewed by Esther Schapira

Interviewed by Esther Schapira a year after the Al Durah incident Talal Abu Rahma, France2’s Palestinian photojournalist, describes how deafening and incessant the Israeli fire was as the IDF allegedly targeted the Al Durahs huddled by the wall for 45 minutes. Listen carefully again to Abu Rahma’s raw footage of the incident on the first page of the Evidence section. Does Abu Rahma’s account of the Israeli fire here comport with the account in his raw video footage?

  • Problem: External inconsistency – The firing recorded in Abu Rahma’s raw footage is neither incessant nor deafening. Indeed we can hear Jamal Al Durah’s voice as he shouts toward the camera. Jamal’s voice is obscured not by the sound of gunfire – but rather by the sound of simultaneously screaming from the Abu Rahma and those around him. See Esther Schapira’s 2009 documentary “Das kind, der Tod und die Warheit” at 23:20 – 24:12. Schapira points to Jamal’s cries which a lip-reader confirms as pointing to the Palestinians – not the Israelis – as the source of any fire directed at the Al Durahs. If you listen to Abu Rahma’s raw footage, you can hear Abu Rahma and a voice near him is shouting, “The boy is dead! The boy is dead!” – even though the boy is obviously very much alive and unhurt at that moment.